Revealed: the greatest goals

Ask a hundred football fans what their favourite goal of all time is, and you’re likely to get a hundred different answers!

Narrowing down the world’s best player is difficult enough, so deciding on a single, greatest goal of all time might seem to be an impossible challenge. Or is it?

Eager to answer this age-old question, livefootballtickets.com – the online matchday ticket supplier – took to YouTube to find the most popular goals ever scored. In addition, its researchers also discovered the potential earnings each video is producing on the streaming channel could be quite considerable.

ENDURING LEGACY: Maradona's controversial goal against England in 1986 is still hugely popular.

Lionel Messi, one of the greatest players to have played the beautiful game, is the man who heads the charts. The Argentine's last-gasp winner for Barcelona, against arch-rivals Real Madrid, wins by a landslide with almost 70 million viewings! The exposure is enough to generate £95,000 for the goal-scoring machine who now plies his trade for Paris Saint-German.

And 35 years after the late Maradona's infamous "hand of God" moment in the 1986 World Cup, the nemesis of England’s 2-1 quarter-final defeat, finds himself comfortably in second place with just over 18 million viewings.

It just goes to show that a goal of such magnitude will always prove popular with fans, no matter what era it is from.

GOALDEN BOY: England's David Beckham, master of the freekick, is popular among YouTube viewers.

England's David Beckham claims third place with a wonder freekick that secured World Cup qualification against a plucky Greek side in 2001.

And then comes Swedish sensation, Zlatan Ibrahimovic in fourth and fifth place, with a combined total of 16 million views, for two thunderbolts – one of which was against the three lions in 2012.

THIS SWEDE'S NO TURNIP: Ibrahimovic's two goals secured him fourth and fifth place on the list.

Here is the top-10 list of greatest-ever goals...

1. Lionel Messi vs. Real Madrid (2017): 69,989,641 views

2. Diego Maradona vs. England (1986): 18,026,450

3. David Beckham vs. Greece (2001): 15,482,673

4. Zlatan Ibrahimovic vs. LAFC (2018): 9,086,567

5. Zlatan Ibrahimovic vs. England (2012): 6,951,217

6. Sergio Aguero vs. QPR (2012): 6,611,822

7. Lionel Messi vs. Reims (2021): 6,564,690

8. Zinedine Zidane vs. Bayer Leverkusen (2002): 4,754,162

9. Roberto Carlos vs. France (1997): 4,321,460

10. Thierry Henry vs. Manchester United (2000): 3,466,934

NOWHERE TO BE FOUND: Ronaldo's best goal comes in at just 32 on the list.

Interestingly, while Messi is top of the pile by a huge margin, his rival to be the greatest player of all time, Cristiano Ronaldo, does not feature anywhere in the top 30 goals

Ronaldo, who is now back at Manchester United after profitable spells at Real Madrid and Juventus, can only manage a best place of 32, with 993,900 views. This is just 1.4% of Messi’s total.

Full analysis and data for all 40 goals covered in the study can be found by clicking here.